Free Republic

The so-called "American Taliban" is asking the president again to commute his sentence. Lawyers for John Walker Lindh have renewed a Petition for Commutation, asking President Bush to commute Lindh's 20-year prison sentence. Lindh had originally asked President Bush to shorten his sentence in September of last year, saying his case should get another look after another U-S born Taliban suspect - Yaser Esam Hamdi - was released. In an appeal to the president filed yesterday, Lindh's lawyers say other defendants who have recently pleaded guilty to similar charges have received much shorter sentences. Lindh grew up in Marin County,...

American-born Taliban soldier John Walker Lindh has asked President Bush again to reduce his 20-year prison sentence by an unspecified amount, Lindh's attorney said Tuesday. Lindh, now in his early 20s, wrote a first-person account to the Justice Department's pardon attorneys arguing why he believes Bush should reduce his sentence. Lindh's attorney said the document could not be publicly released under U.S. government restrictions intended to prevent Lindh from disclosing national secrets. Lindh, a native of Marin County, Calif., who is now imprisoned in southern California, was captured in Afghanistan weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. He pleaded...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Army investigators concluded that soldiers who photographed American-born Taliban fighter John Walker Lindh in captivity in Afghanistan with an obscenity written on his blindfold were guilty of "barracks humor" but not intentional wrongdoing, according to documents released Tuesday. The investigators also found no evidence to support allegations that members of the 5th Special Forces Group, based at Fort Campbell, Ky., intentionally destroyed evidence or impeded a Justice Department investigation of the wartime treatment of Lindh, who denies having fought against U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Lindh, a California native now in his early 20s, was captured in Mazar-e-Sharif...

Last week, John Walker Lindh  petitioned the president to commute his 20-year sentence for fighting with the Taliban, imposed in 2002.  It’s a shame that this pampered child of Marin County is sitting in a cell for something as trivial as treason. Under a plea bargain, Walker Lindh (AKA: Abdul Hamid, AKA: Sulayman Al-Lindh) pleaded guilty to supplying services to the Taliban regime and carrying explosives for  Afghanistan’s former rulers.Which is like to saying that Benedict Arnold supplied services to George III. Johnny Jihad trained in an al-Qaeda camp – where he learned to fire an AK-47 and rubbed elbows...

SAN FRANCISCO — John Walker Lindh (search) asked President Bush on Tuesday to commute his 20-year prison sentence for aiding the Taliban. His lawyer, James Brosnahan, said that Lindh was fighting alongside the Taliban (search) in a civil war against the Northern Alliance, that he is not a terrorist and that he never fought against U.S. troops. Brosnahan said the sentence should be reduced because Yaser Esam Hamdi (search), another American citizen captured in Afghanistan on suspicion of aiding the Taliban, is being released after being held for three years as an enemy combatant.

While the U.S. prepared to deport one of the captured American-born Taliban fighters, the other one asked President Bush yesterday to commute his prison sentence. John Walker Lindh's lawyer complained that his client was punished more harshly than Yaser Esam Hamdi, who is being deported to Saudi Arabia after being held for three years as an enemy combatant. "It's basically unfair to have John Lindh serve the remainder of his 20-year term," said Lindh's lawer, James Brosnahan. "It seems to us a matter of justice and, may I use the word, compassion." But compassion for Lindh was in short supply...

Filed at 2:14 p.m. ET SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- John Walker Lindh asked President Bush on Tuesday to commute his 20-year prison sentence for aiding the Taliban. His lawyer, James Brosnahan, said Lindh was a young man in the wrong place at the wrong time. He said that Lindh was fighting alongside the Taliban in a civil war against the Northern Alliance, that he is not a terrorist and that he never fought against U.S. troops. Brosnahan said the sentence should be reduced because Yaser Esam Hamdi, another American citizen captured in Afghanistan on suspicion of aiding the Taliban, is...

<p>LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - An inmate has been charged with attacking so-called American Taliban John Walker Lindh in an incident at the federal prison in California where Lindh is serving a 20-year sentence for his involvement with militant Islamic fighters in Afghanistan.</p>

<p>VICTORVILLE, Calif. (AP) - John Walker Lindh, the American serving a 20-year sentence for helping the Taliban, has been transferred to a federal prison in this desert community northeast of Los Angeles.</p> <p>Lindh, 21, arrived at the medium-security Federal Correctional Institution in Victorville on Saturday, under guard by federal marshals, authorities said. He had been held at a federal lockup in Virginia.</p>

In the post 9/11 world, words are read and heard with a different eye and ear. So when singer/songwriter Steve Earle performed "John Walker's Blues," (as in John Walker Lindh, the so-called American Taliban who was arrested in Afghanistan and admitted he served with the Taliban), there were more than few raised eyebrows: "If my daddy could see me now - chains around my feet He don't understand that sometimes a man Has got to fight for what he believes And I believe God is great, all praise due to him And if I should die, I'll rise up to...

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - Five American men charged Saturday with supporting terrorism trained to use assault rifles and other weapons at an al-Qaida camp in Afghanistan ( news - web sites) where Osama bin Laden ( news - web sites) spoke about his anti-American beliefs, authorities said. The men, all in their 20s and of Yemeni descent, appeared in court Saturday and were charged with unlawfully providing material support and resources to foreign terrorist organizations. The judge entered an innocent plea for each and ordered the men jailed until a detention hearing Wednesday. The charges carry a maximum penalty of...

<p>THE BIZARRE CASE of John Walker Lindh, the young American who fought for the Taliban, achieved a legal conclusion last week when he pleaded guilty to charges of providing support to terrorists and carrying and using firearms and explosives during crimes of violence. Lindh will receive a 20-year prison sentence, of which he will have to serve at least 17 years.</p>

John Walker Lindh should have been hauled before a military tribunal. He probably would have been, were it not for the provision in President Bush's executive order limiting military tribunals' jurisdiction to non-citizens (a move thought by some to have been a preemptive strike against the Fifth Column's legal crowd). If Lindh had been tried by a military tribunal - whatever the specific charge(s) - given the facts, he almost assuredly would have been convicted. The death penalty was a distinct possibility. Instead, Lindh was transferred from military to civilian control, and put into the civilian judicial system. Once that...

On July 15, 2002, Taliban John Walker Lindh pleaded guilty to criminal charges levied against him for his association with the Taliban and al-Qaeda. Heralded as a "surprise deal" by the Associated Press, Lindh's capitulation was anything but a surprise — not to me, nor to readers of Front Page Magazine. Ever since Lindh was flushed out of that prison basement in Afghanistan, I've been predicting that he'd cop a plea because of the strength of the government's case and the lack of a defense. For example, in February I wrote a piece entitled "Reading Brosnahan's Mind," and said: The...

TALIBAN JOHN: THE NOOSE TIGHTENS Henry Mark Holzer If there has been doubt in anyone's mind about the nature of the government's principal case against John Walker Lindh, last week's court filing by the United States Attorney should have dispelled it. To understand the significance of what the government's motion papers said, it's necessary to remind ourselves about what "conspiracy" means in federal criminal law, and then about what the indictment charges Lindh with having done. Conspiracy is proved by evidence showing an agreement (which can be tacit, so long as it is clear) to do something illegal (e.g., killing...

TALIBAN JOHN: THE DESPERATE DEFENSE Henry Mark Holzer It’s obvious that despite its bravado, the John Walker Lindh defense camp is desperate. First, we saw two examples of “graymail,” a tactic used by defense lawyers in national security cases. The idea is for the defense to seek in the discovery stage of the case highly sensitive documents and testimony so that the government is put on the horns of a dilemma: comply with the request, and risk compromising important secrets (which the government, understandably, is loathe to do), or refuse to comply, and risk dismissal of the case (which the...